Entertainment

Boxee Box Now Available for Pre-order

Boxee has announced that its widely anticipated Boxee Box will be available today for pre-order for $199. The pre-order is being conducted exclusively through Amazon, but international consumers will be pleased to hear that the device will be available in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia.

After launching its media center software in 2008, Boxee quickly became a darling of home media enthusiasts. At launch, however, users of the software were required the use of either a home theater PC or a hacked Apple TV. The process compelled many to question when Boxee would bring its powerful media experience directly to consumers.

That question was answered in December 2009 when Boxee announced that it was collaborating with D-Link to create the Boxee Box. Unveiled at CES 2010, the Boxee Box was initially powered by an Nvidia Tegra 2 "system-on-a-chip."

Today at the Intel Developer Forum Boxee and D-Link will announce that the Boxee Box is now running an Intel Atom CE4100. The new chip is fully capable of running 1080p video with 5.1 surround sound, so your shiny home theaters won't be going to waste.

With its release date rapidly approaching, the Boxee Box will be hitting the market during a holiday season already cluttered with Google TV and Apple TV. How do you think the Boxee Box will fare?

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